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Aural History Productions
The Radio Archive ~ July - December, 2004
December 30, 2004Segment 1: "Embracing the Bomb."
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Time: 33:02.In 1949, Cold War rivals turned into atomic rivals as the Soviet Union broke the monopoly of atomic weapons the United States had held for four years. Along with nuclear rivalry came a variety of civil defense efforts designed to assuage American's growing fears of Atomic nightmare. This documentary, produced by Toshi Higuchi as a final project for the University at Albany course, Producing Historical Radio Features and Documentaries, discusses the history of various civil defense efforts orchastrated by the U.S. government, and sheds light on American society during the Cold War. Higuchi utilized archival audio from the Swarthmore College Peace Collection and the US National Archives II, and interviewed a number of activists, scholars, and experts on America's civil defense efforts, including Mr. Ken Sitz (Conelrad director ~ http://www.conelrad.com/); Dr. Kenneth Rose (California State University, Chico); Dr. Laura McEnaney (Whittier College); Mr. Thomas Cornell (The Catholic Worker); Dr. Sanford Gottlieb (Former SANE director). Segment 2: From the Archives (off Site links): "Edward Teller on Edward Teller."
Hungarian-born American nuclear physicist Edward Teller is popularly considered the father of the hydrogen bomb. There may be some debate about that, but there is little debate that Teller was the most aggressive promoter of the H-Bomb. Here we explore Teller's views on nuclear technology. For background on Teller's life and career, and some autobiographical oral reflections, go to: http://www.brainyencyclopedia.com/encyclopedia/e/ed/edward_teller.html and http://www.llnl.gov/llnl/history/teller.html http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/tel0int-1. Segment 3: "Saboteurs."
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Time: 14:27Talking History's Bryan Le Beau interviews Michael Dobbs,author of Saboteurs: The Nazi Raid on America. They discuss "Operation Pastorius," a Nazi plot to cause havoc on the East Coast of the United States. Produced: December, 2004
December 23, 2004Segment 1: "Leon Carl Brown and the Study of Middle Eastern History."
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Time: 27:23.Prof. Karl Barbir of Siena College interviews Leon Carl Brown, the Garrett Professor in Foreign Affairs Emeritus at Princeton University and a specialist on Middle East history, about Brown's career and perspectives on Middle East history. Professor Brown delves into the �Eastern question� as a pattern of politics in the region stretching back to the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and extending into the Cold War and the present. Brown started his career in the foreign service with assignments in Lebanon and Sudan before he entered academe. His academic career included jobs at both Harvard and Princeton. Now retired, Brown's expertise has been extensively sought since the 9/11 tragedy. Brown�s writings span decades and include International Politics in the Middle East: Old Rules, Dangerous Game (1984), Religion and State: The Muslim Approach to Politics (2000), as well as a number of edited books, including Centerstage: American Diplomacy Since World War II (1990) and Diplomacy of the Middle East: The International Relations of Regional and Outside Powers (2001). Produced: December, 2004. Segment 2: From the Archives: "Charlie Chaplin on Film and Art (1952)."
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Time: 4:58The archival segment on Charlie Chaplin comes from a 1952 BBC interview conducted in England after the showing of Chaplin's film "Limelight," with John Mills, Michael Hedgrave, and an unidentified BBC correspondent. Chaplin (who was born in England) was denied entry into the US after his return to the states from this trip and spent the rest of his life abroad in exile. Segment 3: "Jesus of Hollywood."
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Time: 16:25Talking History's Eileen Dugan interviews Adele Reinharz about the different portrayals of Jesus in film from D.W. Griffith to Mel Gibson. Reinharz is Dean of Graduate Studies and Research and Professor in the Department of Religion and Culture at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada. Produced: December, 2004
December 16, 2004Segment 1: "Presidential Rankings."
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Time: 14:23.Bryan Le Beau discusses the history of presidential rankings with Max Skidmore. Skidmore is Curator's Professor of Political Science and Thomas Jefferson Professor at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and author of Presidential Performance: A Comprehensive Review (McFarland & Co Inc Pub., 2004). Segment 2: "John Dean on Warren G. Harding."
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Time: 18:57Talking History/OAH's Fred Nielsen discusses the career and reputation of President Warren G. Harding with John Dean. Dean tries to set the record straight, suggesting that Warren G. Harding was a far better president than popular opinion allows. Dean served for three years as White House counsel in the Nixon administration. His new book, Warren G. Harding (Henry Holt & Co, 2004) is part of The American Presidents series, edited by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. Produced: December, 2004. Segment 3: From the Archives: "Wild Bill Hickok."
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Time: 23:52This dramatic and musical treatment of Wild Bill Hickok's life aired on November 6, 1940 as part of the series, The Cavalcade of America. Cavalcade of America offered biographical historical segments, often accompanied by original scores or songs. It was originally broadcast out of New York over the CBS radio network (10/09/35 till 05/29/39), and sponsoted by the E.I. du Pont de Nemours Company. In early 1940, the series shifted to the NBC network and stayed there until its final broadcast on 03/31/53. For more information about the series, see http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG03/radio/. For information on this recording, contact Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD.
December 9, 2004Segment 1: "From the Archives: WGY's The FBI in Action."
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Time: 25:16.For many years -- in the 1940s and early 1950s -- Schenectady, NY radio station WGY (formerly owned by the General Electric Corporation) broadcast the locally-written and produced radio program The FBI in Action. The show was produced with the cooperation of the Albany, NY regional office of the FBI and included the participation of local FBI agents. This episode, titled "Section 8," was broadcast in the early 1950s and is one of the few surviving broadcasts from the radio series. Unfortunately, the recording is marred by static and occasional audio drop-offs. It was originally recorded off the air. From the aural history archives of Capital Voices ~ Capital Lives (University at Albany, SUNY). Segment 2: From the Archives: "Madame Chiang Kai Shek Addresses the U.S. Congress (Feb. 18, 1943)."
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Time: 21:00Madame Chiang Kai-shek was the wife of the Nationalist Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek, having married him in 1927 -- a year after Chiang took over China's ruling Nationalist Party. The Nationalists, or Kuomintang, overthrew China's last dynasty, the Qing, only to face a Japanese invasion during World War II and a bloody civil war with Mao Tse-tung's Communist Party afterwards. The Kuomintang retreated to Taiwan in 1949.
Madame Chiang was born Mayling Soong in March, 1897, in Shanghai, though she became thoroughly Western after spending much of her youth and young adulthood studying in America. She graduated from Wellesley College in Massachusetts in 1917. Her fluency in English and familiarity with American culture and politics allowed her to slip into the role of Washington lobbyist rather easily and she became the principal lobbyist for her husband and the Nationalist government. She often appealed to Washington politicians for support of Taiwan's Nationalist government. In this recording, from February 18, 1943, Madame Chaing Kai-shek addresses a joint session of the U.S. House and Senate. It was the second time in US history that a woman addressed a joint session of Congreee. In her speech, which appears here in its entirety, Madame Chiang Kai-shek strongly encouraged senators and congressmen to more aggressively support China in its war with Japan. For more information about these recordings contact The Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project, UCLA, Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD. Segment 3: "Emily S. Rosenberg on the Memory of Pearl Harbor."
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Time: 15:16Talking History/OAH's Jim Madison explores the memory of Pearl Harbor with historian Emily S. Rosenberg. Rosenberg is the DeWitt Wallace Professor of History at Macalester College. She is the author of A Date Which Will Live: Pearl Harbor in American Memory (Duke University Press, 2003), Financial Missionaries to the World: The Politics and Culture of Dollar Diplomacy, 1900�1930 (Duke University Press, 2004), Spreading the American Dream: American Economic and Cultural Expansion, 1890�1945 (Hill & Wang, 1982), and coauthor of In Our Times: America since World War II and Liberty, Equality, Power: A History of the American People (Wadsworth, 2003). Produced: December, 2004.
December 2, 2004Segment 1: "An American Life."
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Time: 27:41.From George Liston Seay and Dialogue: "The Vietnam war years were fractious for a nation passionately divided between defenders and denouncers of the conflict. But for those caught up in the war, it was a chapter of their lives and later an indelible part of their history. In this conversation, Lawrence Amman describes the currents of his life and interests and the effect of his war experience then and now." Segment 2: From the Archives: "Marcus Garvey Speaks (July 1921)."
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Time: 7:03These two speeches were recorded by Marcus Garvey July of 1921. They are probably the only surviving recordings of him in existence. For more information on Marcus Garvey, see: http://www.international.ucla.edu/africa/mgpp/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Mosiah_Garvey. For more information about these recordings contact The Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project, UCLA, Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD. Segment 3: "W. J. Rorabaugh on John F. Kennedy and the 1960s."
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Time: 16:51Talking History/OAH's Linna Place, explores President Kennedy and the decade of the sixties with W.J. Rorabaugh, professor of history at the University of Washington. Produced: November, 2004.
November 25, 2004Segment 1: "History of Russian Architecture."
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Time: 28:03.From George Liston Seay and Dialogue. Seay interviews Prof. William Craft Brumfield, professor of Slavic languages at Tulane University, about the subject of his recent book, A History of Russian Architecture (Univ. of Washington Press, 2004). The book is an expanded revision of Gold in Azure: One Thousand Years of Russian Architecture, originally published by Godine in 1983. Segment 2: From the Archives: "Spencer Fullerton Baird and the Origins of the U.S. Fish Commission (February 2, 1939)."
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Time: 5:31This documentary drama segment -- part of Smithsonian's The World is Yours radio series -- aired on Feb. 12, 1939 on the NBC Blue Network and was part of a segment titled "Great American Biologists." It focuses on the life and public contributions of Spencer Fullerton Baird (1823�87), an American zoologist who was instrumental in getting Congress to establish the U.S. Fish Commission in 1871, the earliest U.S. government agency devoted to conservation. Baird served as the first head of the Commission, and later -- in 1878 -- became the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. While active in the Smithsonian, Baird supervised the construction of a North American fauna museum. He also set up the Marine Biological Station at Woods Hole, Mass., and initiated scores of studies related to wildlife preservation. His books on birds inaugurated the so-called "Baird school" of ornithological description, with its emphasis on detailed and accurate observations of individual bird behavior. Baird was also known for his catalogs of North American reptiles and mammals. For more information about this recording contact Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD. Segment 3: "Great American Scandals."
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Time: 15:09Talking History/OAH's Bryan Le Beau discuss the scandals of our past with Michael Farquhar, author of A Treasury of Great American Scandals: Tantalizing True Tales of Historic Misbehavior by the Founding Fathers and Others Who Let Freedom Swing (Penguin, 2003). Produced: November, 2004.
November 18, 2004Segment 1: "The Known World."
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Time: 28:15.From George Liston Seay and Dialogue: "One of slavery�s lesser-known aspects was the ownership of slaves by freed former slaves. Although rare, this circumstance provided a clear example of the moral destructiveness of 'the peculiar institution.' Edward P. Jones made this subject the theme of his Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Known World. Here he discusses the book." Segment 2: From the Archives: "The Nixon-Khrushchev Kitchen Debate (July 24, 1959)."
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Time: 7:22This is a recording of an informal spontaneous "debate" that took place on July 24, 1959 between Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev during Nixon's 1959 visit to Moscow. It is called the "kitchen" debate because the exchange took place in front of a model kitchen exhibit at the U.S. Trade and Cultural Fair in Sokolniki Park, Moscow. Philip Gundy, working for the Ampex Corporation, was then head of the Ampex exhibit at the Cultural Fair and utilized one of the first video recorders, which he helped develop, to record the exchange between the two men. For information on this historic recording, go to: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/witness/july/24/newsid_3916000/3916851.stm. For a transcription of the exchange, see CNN's Cold War on-line Web site at: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/14/documents/debate/. Segment 3: "Patriotic Songs."
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Time: 17:50Talking History/OAH's Fred Nielsen explores the origins of some familiar patriotic songs -- Yankee Doodle, The Star Spangled Banner, and God Bless America -- with Ace Collins, author of Songs Sung Red, White, and Blue: The Stories Behind America's Best-Loved Patriotic Songs. Produced: November, 2004.
November 11, 2004Segment 1: "An Honest Writer: James T. Farrell."
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Time: 28:04.From George Liston Seay and Dialogue: "James T. Farrell was one of America�s most noted writers. Farrell also actively participated in the great literary and political arguments of his day. Biographer, Robert Landers � author of �An Honest Writer: The Life and Times of James T. Farrell� explains Farrell�s legacy." Segment 2: From the Archives: "Herman Melvile: Merchant Seaman" (1940s).
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Time: 5:02This, a radio dramatization of Herman Melville's early career in the U.S. Merchant Marine, is one of several radio programs produced by the U.S. Maritime Commission during World War II. The programs celebrated the history and achivement of the U.S. Merchant Marine. The recording comes from the media collections of Record Group 178: Records of the U.S. Maritime Commission, 1917 - 1950, located at the National Archives (Arhives II), Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD Segment 3: "Commerce and the Founding Fathers."
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Time: 14:57Talking History/OAH Bryan Le Beau explores the relationship between commerce and republican government with Craig Yirush, professor of history at UCLA. Yirush is a specialist in early American political thought and the development of political ideas in the early modern British Atlantic. This is the final segment of the 4-part series on constitutional founding fathers. Produced: October, 2004.
November 4, 2004Segment 1: "Black Inventors."
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Time: 31:49.Talking History's Gerald Zahavi interviews Rayvon David Fouché, Assistant Professor of Science and Technology Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, on African American inventors in American history. Fouché is the author of Black Inventors in the Age of Segregation (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), co-editor of Appropriating Technology: Vernacular Science and Cultural Invention (University of Minnesota Press, 2004), and is currently editing a manuscript for Perdue University Press titled Race and the Machine: Technology and Black Cultural Experience (forthcoming). Segment 2: From the Archives: "Huey Long: 'Share Our Wealth' (1935)."
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Time: 3:20Louisiana politician (Senator and Governor) Huey Long summarizes his plan ("Share Our Wealth") to get the nation out of the Depression. Long had been a supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt, than turned against the latter for personal and political reasons. He became a major critic of the New Deal, placing pressure on FDR to move further to the left. In 1934, when Long first offered his radical plan for wealth redistribution, FDR began to do precisely that; the following year, after major Democratic electoral victories in the House and Senate, FDR inaugurated the "Second New Deal." Long was assasinated on September 8th, 1935, five months after delivering this April 1935 radio address. For a trasncript of his comments, go to http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5109. Segment 3: "Freedom of Religion and the Founding Fathers."
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Time: 16:09Talking History/OAH Bryan Le Beau explores the theme of freedom of religion and America's founding fathers with Stephen Klugewicz. Stephen Klugewicz is Executive Director of Collegiate Network. Produced: October, 2004.
October 28, 2004Segment 1: "A History of Menstruation and Menstrual Technologies in America."
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Time: 32:17Talking History's Gerald Zahavi interviews Sharra L. Vostral, Assistant Professor of Science and Technology Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Vostral is a specialist in medical history and the history of sexuality and is the author, most recently, of "Masking Menstruation: The Emergence of Menstrual Hygiene Products in the United States" in Andrew Shail, ed. Menstruation: History and Culture from Antiquity to Modernity (Palgrave, UK., forthcoming), and "Reproduction, Regulation, and Body Politics," Journal of Women's History 15-2 (Summer 2003): 197-207. Vostral is currently working on a monograph titled Red Marks: Menstruation, Menstrual Hygiene Products, and Women's Rights in the United States. Segment 2: From the Archives: "Margaret Woodraw Wilson Sings the Star Spangled Banner (Red Cross Benefit Recording, Columbia Records, 1915)."
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Time: 3:16Woodraw Wilson's daughter, Margaret Wilson (Birth: 16 Apr 1886, Gainesville, Georgia Death: 12 Feb 1944, Pondicherry, India) was a professional singer and recording artist -- and a follower of Indian mysticism who left the United States and settled in India. Here, from 1915, is a recording of the Star Spangled Banner she made while still performing the the US, mainly to generate money for the Red Cross. The recording comes to us from the Belfer Audio Laboratory and Archive at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York. Our thanks to Robert Hodge and Susan Stinson at the Belfer Laboratory for making Wilson's recording available to us. Segment 3: "History of Halloween."
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Time: 15:310Talking History/OAH host Bryan Le Beau is joined by David Skal, author of Death Makes A Holiday. They discuss the origins and myths of Halloween. Produced: October, 2004.
October 21, 2004Segment 1: "Political Advertisements in the 1964 Election."
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Time: 17:23.We offer this sampling of the audio tracks of television campaign commercials from the 1964 US national election, suggesting just how important the emotive use of media became in 1964, when Lyndon Baines Johnson and Barry Goldwater confronted each other and offered voters a clear choice between liberalism and conservatism. The campaign featured one of the most powerful political commercials of the past half-century, Johnson�s "Peace Little Girl (Daisy)" ad, created by Tony Schwartz. For more information on the use of television advertising in the campaign, see the 1964 Campaign Web page featured on The Living Room Candidate, a wonderful Web site featuring the video of many of the advertisements that aired in 1964. For more information about the work of Tony Schwartz, go to Tony Schwartz's Web Site. The commercials featured here are widely available on the WWW and are archived (along with other campaign materials) at the LBJ Presidential Library/NARA in Austin, Texas and in the Barry Morris Goldwater papers at Arizona State University's Hayden Library, Tempe, AZ. Segment 2: From the Archives: "Political Songs of the 1848 Election." [Off-site link].
Getting the Message Out! National Political Campaign Materials, 1840-1860: Songs of the 1848 Election.
Our focus on the election of 1848 and its preoccupation with the course of American empire during and after the Mexican-American War was inspired by "Getting the Message Out! National Political Campaign Materials, 1840-1860." This rich Web site offers students, teachers, and the general public a wonderful library of on-line presidential campaign materials dating from 1840 to 1860, including campaign songbooks and recordings by contemporary musicians -- suggesting how these songs may have been sung back in the mid-19th century. The Web site and recordings are a product of the Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project at Northern Illinois University Libraries. Segment 3: "Slavery and the Founding Fathers."
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Time: 17:31Talking History/OAH Bryan Le Beau explores the theme of slavery and America's founding fathers with Robert McDonald, author of the essay on slavery for the Founders and the Constitution series. McDonald is professor of history at West Point Military Academy. Produced: October, 2004.
October 14, 2004Segment 1: "White Boy: A Conversation with Historian Mark Naison (part 2 of 2)."
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Time: 32:15.This is part 2 of an interview of historian Mark Naison conducted by Talking History's Gerald Zahavi The interviews reviews his life and career as a specialist in African American history -- and his participation in some of the most significant social and political movements in recent American history: the Civil Rights Movement, the Anti-War Movement, SDS, and the Weathermen. See last week's entry for more details. This interview was originally conducted for the Journal for MultiMedia History and will appear in the next issue of that on-line journal. Segment 2: From the Archives: "David Ben Gurion on the Jews and Palestine" (1947).
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Time: 6:17London Speech by David Ben Gurion (1886-1973), probably delivered before the Jewish Agency for Palestine, and used on the jointy produced ABC/Town Hall New York radio forum titled "America's Town Meeting of the Air" (it migrated to television in 1948). This address was broadcast on June 12, 1947, as part of series of broadcasts on the "Palestine problem." In his address, Ben Gurion argues the case for a Jewish homeland. The following year, the state of Israel was established. At the time he delivered this address, Ben Gurion was the Chairman of the Exectuive Committee of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, an organization founded in 1929 and devoted to promoting and protecting the rights of the Jewish community in British-occupied Palestine. When Israel became a nation in 1948, many of the leaders of the Jewish Agency became overnight leaders of the new state. For a short biography of Ben Gurion, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ben-Gurion. For more information about this recording contact Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD. Segment 3: "Federalism and the Founding Fathers."
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Time: 16:32Talking History/OAH Bryan Le Beau begins a four-week series on "The Founders and the Constitution," with an interview with David Marion on the early history of U.S. federalism. "The Founders and the Constitution" series is a collaborative effort with the Bill of Rights Institute. Produced: September, 2004.
October 7, 2004Segment 1: "White Boy: A Conversation with Historian Mark Naison (part 1 of 2)."
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Time: 30:17.Mark Naison is Professor of African and African-American Studies and Director of the Urban Studies Program at Fordham University. He is the author of White Boy: A Memoir (Temple University Press, 2002), Communists in Harlem During the Depression (University of Illinois Press, 1983), co-author of The Tenant Movement in New York City, 1940-1984 (Rutgers University Press, 1986), and the author of several articles on African-American culture and contemporary urban issues, including "Outlaw Culture in Black Culture" (Reconstruction, Fall 1994). Naison's study of Buffalo's African-American community appeared in the Urban League's anthology, African-Americans and the Rise of Buffalo's Post-Industrial City (1990) and he was one of the historians asked to contribute his story to Historians and Race: Autobiography and the Writing of History (1996). He is now working on a major study of the history of African-Americans in the Bronx, in collaboration with the Bronx Historical Society. For much of his life, race has been a major concern for Naison both academically and personally. In this interview, conducted by Talking History's Gerald Zahavi, Naison reviews his life and career as a specialist in African American history -- and his participation in some of the most significant social and political movements in recent American history: the Civil Rights Movement, the Anti-War Movement, SDS, and the Weathermen. This is part 1 of a 2-part interview. We will air part 2 next week. This interview was originally conducted for the Journal for MultiMedia History and will appear in the next issue of that on-line journal. Segment 2: From the Archives: "William Faulkner's Noble Prize Acceptance Speech (12-10-1950)." (1955)
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Time: 2:56William Cuthbert Faulkner, the winner of the 1949 Noble Prize in Literature, was born in New Albany, Mississippi on September 25, 1897. He is the author of several volumes of short stories and a number of novels firmly rooted in Southern region and culture, many set in a fictional place he named Yoknapatawpha County. aulkner's works include Sartoris (1929), The Sound and the Fury (1929), As I Lay Dying (1930), Sanctuary (1931), Light in August (1932), Absalom Absalom (1936), The Hamlet (1940) and Intruder in the Dust (1948). William Faulkner died on July 6, 1962. This recording of Faulkner's Noble Prize acceptance speech was made on December 10, 1950, when he was awarded the 1949 Noble Prize in Literature (Bertrand Russell was awarded the Noble Prize in Literature for 1950 at the same time). For more information about this recording contact Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD. Segment 3: "Bleeding Kansas."
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Time: 15:26Talking History/OAH Jim Madison discusses the ideological origins of the Civil War in the Kansas Territory with historian Nicole Etcheson of the Department of History, University of Texas at El Paso. Etcheson is the author of Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War (University Press of Kansas, 2004). Produced: September, 2004.
September 30, 2004Segment 1: "Historians Against War: A Town Meeting."
Part 1:
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Time: 28:18.Part 2:
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Time: 17:27.On August 28th, 2004, the group Historians Against War held a "Town Hall Meeting" at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City to discuss and offer historical perspectives on the Iraq War. Ellen Schrecker of Yeshiva University, Renate Bridenthal of Brooklyn College (emerita), Thomas Bender of NYU, and Andrew Bacevich of Boston University explored the question "Have we broken with the mainstream American past?" Here is the first 45 minutes of the 2-hour discussion (the recording of the remainder of the Town Hall Meeting will be added to this site soon).
Segment 2: From the Archives: "Recording of the First Vietnam-Era Draft Lottery Drawing (December 1, 1969)."
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Time: 33:00
This is a half-hour selection from a four-reel, two hour recording of the first Vietnam-era draft lottery drawing (the first since 1942) held on December 1, 1969, at the Selective Service National Headquarters in Washington, D.C. According to the Selective Service System's Web site (http://www.sss.gov/lotter1.htm), "This event determined the order of call for induction during calendar year 1970, that is, for registrants born between January 1, 1944, and December 31, 1950. Reinstitution of the lottery was a change from the "draft the oldest man first" method, which had been the determining method for deciding order of call.
There were 366 blue plastic capsules containing birth dates placed in a large glass container and drawn by hand to assign order-of-call numbers to all men within the 18-26 age range specified in Selective Service law.
With radio, film and TV coverage, the capsules were drawn from the container, opened, and the dates inside posted in order. The first capsule - drawn by Congressman Alexander Pirnie (R-NY) of the House Armed Services Committee - contained the date September 14, so all men born on September 14 in any year between 1944 and 1950 were assigned lottery number 1. The drawing continued until all days of the year had been paired with sequence numbers."
For more information about the audio recording, part of Record Group 147 (Records of the Selective Service System), contact Talking History/University
at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records
LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD.
September 23, 2004Segment 1: "George Stoney, Documentary Filmmaking, and the Uprising of '34."
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Time: 30:04.Part 2:
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Time: 18:40.Talking History's Gerald Zahavi interviews George Stoney about his life and career as a documentary filmmaker and pioneer in community media. The interview focuses on Stoney's various projects, including field work under Howard University's Ralph Bunch for Gunnar Myrdal's An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy, and collaborations on over 50 films, including the historical documentary, "The Uprising of '34." Stoney has taught filmmaking at NYU for more than three decades. Segment 2: From the Archives: "David E. Lilienthal on Oak Ridge and Atomic Energy (1949)."
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Time: 6:51David Eli Lilienthal (1899�1981), born in Morton, Ill., became a well known liberal lawyer who spent almost his entire life in public service. He was first appointed by Gov. Philip La Follette to the Wisconsin public service commission. Then, in 1933, he was tapped by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to serve as one of three directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). On January 1, 1947, President Truman established the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and nominated Lilienthal to be its first chairman. As the director of the AEC from 1947 to 1949, he became a strong advocate of civilian control of the US atomic-energy program. In this speech, delivered in 1949 at Oak Ridge Tennessee, Lilienthal expresses his hopes that atomic energy will ultimately be used for peace and not war. For more information about the audio recording, contact Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD.
September 16, 2004Segment 1: "Remembering Jim Crow."
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Time: 28:10.From Dialogue. "One of segregation�s exquisite cruelties was its insistence on the silence of its victims. At the same time the passion of these masses fueled the labor of civil rights institutions and leaders as they campaigned for equal rights. Historian, Raymond Gavins explains how the �voices� of the once silenced are now being gathered and assessed." Gavins is the co-author/editor (along with William H. Chafe and Robert Korstad) of Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell about Life in the Segregated South (New Press, 2001). Segment 2: From the Archives: "John L. Lewis and the General Motors Sit-Down Strike of 1936-37." (1955)
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Time: 7:31Here is a selection from episode 24 from an old 1954-55 NBC-produced series, "Biography in Sound," focusing on the life of Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and United Mine Workers' (UMW) leader John L. Lewis. The episode is titled "Labor's John L. Lewis," and was first broadcast on July 25th, 1955. For more information about this audio recording contact Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD. Segment 3: "History and September 11th, Part 2."
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Time: 16:21Talking History/OAH marks the third anniversary of 9/11 with a two-part series featuring interviews with several contributors to History and September 11th, recently published by Temple University Press. This is part 2 of the series and features a conversation between Fred Nielsen and Michael Hunt, author of the essay "In the Wake of September 11th." For part 1, see listing under September 2, below. Produced: September, 2004.
September 9, 2004Segment 1: SPECIAL: "Remember Attica: The Rebellion (selection)."
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Due to transmitter and scheduling problems, this week's Talking History was actually not broadcast. Instead, we are providing the program originally planned for the day -- a re-broadcast of a lengthy segment of "Remember Attica ~ Part 1: The Rebellion, the first of a five-part series on the Sept. 1971 Attica uprising. The program comes from the Pacifica Archive (Archive #: BC0378.01). It was produced by Bruce Soloway, Paul Fischer, and Deloris Costello, and first broadcast on WBAI in late March of 1972. For those interested in listening to the entire series, go to "Pacifica Programs" at our Talking History/UAlbany's "Attica Revisited" Web site, at https://talkinghistory.org/attica.
September 2, 2004Segment 1: "Grandma Was an Activist: On the line - Women in the Labor Movement in the 1930s."
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Time: 29:47.This is the third episode of a six-part series titled Grandma Was an Activist: A Radio Series on Radical Women in the 1930s, which extensively utilized oral histories from the Oral History of the American Left collection at the Tamiment Library, NYU. It was produced by Charlie Potter and Beth Friend back in 1983 and was first aired on WBAI-FM (NY) in that year. The six half-hour programs included: (1) "The black and the red" - Activists in Harlem early in the Depression; (2) "How do you spell relief?" - The WPA and unemployment; (3) "On the line" - Women in the labor movement; (4) "They shall not pass" - Women of the anti-fascist movement; (5) "Readin' and 'ritin' on the road to power" - Socialist women on campus; and (6) "The militant muse" - Activist women in the arts. Segment 2: From the Archives: "AFL-CIO President George Meany on Jobs (1961)."
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Time: 3:54Here is a selection from a speech on job creation delivered by AFL-CIO head George Meany at the Union-Industry Show in Detroit, Michigan, in 1961. For more information about this audio recording -- part of Record Group 174: General Records of the Department of Labor, 1907 - 1986 -- contact Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD. Segment 3: "History and September 11th, Part 1."
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Time: 21:07Talking History/OAH marks the third anniversary of 9/11 with this two-part series featuring interviews with two contributors to History and September 11th, recently published by Temple University Press. Part 1, broadcast this week, features an introductory interview with the book's editor, Joanne Meyerowitz, followed by a conversation between Talking History's Fred Nielsen and Melani McAlister, author of the essay, "A Cultural History of the War Without End." Produced: September, 2004.
August 26, 2004Segment 1: "Linda Lumsden on the Life and Times of Inez Milholland."
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Time: 23:30.Part 2:
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Time: 25:14.Inez Milholland, according to her biographer, Linda Lumsden, was "one of the most glamorous suffragists of the 1910s and a fearless crusader for women's rights. . . . She epitomized the New Woman of the time." Talking History's Gerald Zahavi explores the career and achievements of Milholland with Lumsden in this extended interview, recorded on August 24, 2004 -- two days before the anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment. Linda Lumsden is Associate Professor of Journalism and Broadcasting at Western Kentucky University and the author of the recently published Inez: The Life and Times of Inez Milholland (Indiana University Press, 2004). Segment 2: From the Archives: "Ernestine Hara Kettler Recalling Her Imprisonment after the National Woman's Party March on Washington of 1917 (Recorded 1-29-1973)."
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Time: 3:37This short excerpt from more than seven hours of interviews with suffragist Ernestine Hara Kettler, recorded by Sherna Berger Gluck in 1973, recounts the incarceration of Kettler and other suffragists at the Occoquan Work House as a result of their public demonstration in Washington DC in support of a national woman's suffrage amendment. The full interview is available on line at the Virtual Oral/Aural History Archive (VOAHA), California State University, Long Beach http://www.csulb.edu/voaha [follow the links to the Women's History/Suffragist series].
August 19, 2004Segment 1: "A History of the Voice of America."
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Time: 16:49Talking History's Bryan Le Beau explores the history of Voice of America with Alan Heil, a long time foreign correspondent and former deputy director of the Voice of America. Heil is the author of Voice of America: A History (Columbia University Press, 2003). Produced July, 2004. Segment 2: "From the Archives: A Great American Biologist, John James Audubon (2-12-1939)."
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Time: 6:36.John James Audubon (1785-1851) is America's most celebrated naturalists and ornithological artists. He was born in Santo Domingo (Haiti) in 1785, the son of a French sea adventurer and his mistress. He spent much of his early life in western France, but emigrated to his father's American farm, in Mill Grove, Pennsylvania (near Philadelphia), in 1803. Audubon was most likely inspired by Alexander Wilson (1766-1813), who was then the most famous American ornithological artists America. Wilson enjoyed the respect and encouragement of Philadelphia's scientific and intellectual leaders until his death in 1813. Audubon, upon beginning his serious illustration work in the 1820s, did not. Audubon's more emotive and animated bird images were challenged as un-objective, particularly by George Ord, Wilson's editor, biographer and executor of Wilson's estate. Ord's self-interested opposition to Audubon led to an aggressive campaign to discredit Audubon's work and scientific credentials. Ord and his supporters within the Academy of Natural Sciences managed to blacklist Audubon both in Philadelphia and New York. Ultimately, he was was forced to go to London to find an engraver, Robert Havell Jr., willing to produce and publish his work. The Birds of America was issued in four volumes between 1827 and 1838; it contained 435 hand-colored plates of 1,065 birds. Today, these original editions are quite rare and are auctioned in the millions. The documentary segment (from "Great American Biologists"), which only alludes in passing to the "battle" of bird illustrators in early 19th century America, was part of "The World Is Yours" radio series, regularly broadcast over the National Broadcasting Company network. The series was a joint project of the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Department of the Interior Office of Education, and the Works Progress Administration. For more information about the audio recording, contact Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD. For an excellent account of Audubon's life and the controversies around his work, see: http://www.haleysteele.com/jjaudubon/life/bio.cfm. Segment 3: "From the Archives: Carl Sandburg's Lincoln Day Address to Congress (February 12, 1959)."
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Time: 12:02.This segment comes to us from Record Group 306 at the National Archives, the Records of the U.S. Information Agency, 1900 - 1988. It features Carl Sandburg reading at a joint session of Congress on the occasion of Abraham Lincoln's Birthday. Sandburg's speech was delivered on Februrary 12, 1959. For more information about the audio recording, contact Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD.
August 12, 2004Segment 1: "The Language Police."
Talking History's Eileen Dugan interviews Diane Ravitch, author of Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn. The two discuss censorship of history content in history textbooks adopted for use in American elementary and secondary schools. Produced: July, 2004. Segment 2: "American Nazi: Fritz Kuhn and the German-American Bund (Feb. 20, 1939)."
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Time: 27:51.Background, from Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German-American_Bund and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Kuhn_(Nazi)] :
"The German-American Bund was an American Nazi organization established in the 1930s. The Bund was originally two organizations established in the US in the 1920s. The NSDAP [National Socialist German Workers' Party] and the Free Society of Teutonia were small groups with only a few hundred members. NSDAP member Heinz Sponknobel eventually consolidated the two groups and created "The Friends of New Germany." Soon after their formation, the Friends came under attack from two fronts. The first was a Jewish boycott of German goods in the heavily German neighborhood of Yorkville on the Upper East Side of New York City. The friends tried to counter this boycott using propaganda and intimidation. The second problem for the American Nazis came from Jewish congressman Samuel Dickstein, who headed an investigation against them. An internal battle was fought for control of the Friends and in 1934, Sponknobel was ousted as leader. At the same time, the Dickstein investigation concluded that the Friends supported a branch of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany in America. After the investigation, Hitler ordered all German nationals to withdraw from the Friends. On March 19, 1936, Hitler placed US citizen Fritz Kuhn [May 15, 1896 - December 14, 1951] at the head of the party in order to make Americans respond more positively. The name Friends of the New Germany was changed to The German-American Bund (Bund meaning federation). After taking over, Kuhn began to attract attention to the Bund through propaganda film strips which outlined the Bund's views. Later that year in 1936, Kuhn with some 50 fellow Nazis boarded a boat to Germany, hoping to receive official recognition from Hitler during the Berlin Olympics. Unfortunately for Kuhn, he was probably the last person Hitler wanted to meet, because Hitler wanted his American Nazis to remain non-aggressive and work quietly. . . . . In 1939, seeking to cripple the Bund, New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia had the city investigate the Bund's taxes. It found that Kuhn had embezzled over $14,000 from the Bund, spending part of that money on a mistress. Although the Bund did not seek prosecution, District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey pressed charges and won a conviction. This seriously crippled the Bund. During World War II, Kuhn was held by the federal government at an internment camp in Texas. In 1946 he was released and deported to Germany."
See the following for more general information on the Bund: http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/text/x08/xm0805.html, and the following site for information on Camp Siegfried, a summer camp the Bund operated on Long Island. Camp Siegried was one of several camps (including Camp Hindenberg) that Kuhn organized where "the children ate, slept, talked, and dreamed Nazism just as the Hitler Jugend did:" http://www.newsday.com/extras/lihistory/7/hs729a.htm.
The Audio: This 1939 Bund Rally speech by Bund leader Fritz Kuhn, comes from the Office of Alien Property Custodian records, National Archives. For more information about the audio recording, contact Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD. Segment 3: "When Reagan was a Liberal: Ronald Reagan and American Labor."
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Time: 12:02. ILGWU produced program on Ronald Reagan's eraly years as a pro-labor liberal.August 5, 2004Segments 1 and 3: "Studs Terkel: Born to Live (1961)."
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Segments 2: "The 'Daisy' Ad (1964)."
This is perhaps one of the most famous political advertisements in modern history -- marking a major transition in the way that political campaigns were waged. The "Daisy" advertisement, as it has come to be known, was part of Lyndon Johnson's 1964 campaign war against right-wing Republican Barry Goldwater. Goldwater, an Arizona senator, after winning the Republican nomination against the more "liberal" New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, began to shift his party to the right. At the Republican convention of that year, in his acceptance speech, Goldwater made the famous statement that "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." That statement came to haunt him and plague his campaign; it was linked in the public mind -- with the aid of well-crafted political advertisements like this one -- with Goldwater's earlier advocacy of the use of "tactical" nuclear weapons in Vietnam. "The Stakes are too high" became the core theme of all Democractic political advertisements. When applied to foreign affairs, the "stakes" meant nuclear war, and "extremism in the defense of liberty" meant Goldwater's willingness to consider using nuclear weapons to resolve geo-political conflict. The Daisy ad, by the way, was so controversial that it was pulled after only one showing. Johnson, of course, won the election -- and by a landslide. To see and hear the advertisment, go to the American Museum of the Moving Image Web site: http://www.ammi.org/cgi-bin/video/years.cgi?1964.
July 29, 2002Segment 1: "Document Deep South: The Miner's Lamp (1959)."
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Time: 27:51.This examination of southern coal mines and mining is one of more than a dozen documentaries that were part of a series profiling Southern society and economy in the late 1950s. It was produced by the Radio Broadcasting Services Extension Division, University of Alabama. For more information about the audio recording, contact Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD. Segment 2: From the Archives: "Defense Housing in World War II (early 1940s)."
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Time: 4:39.Beginning in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the United States government began to take a greater and greater interest in providing citizens with low-cost housing. First, because the Great Depression placed banks in a precarious position and left them unable or unwilling to take on mortgage loan risks, the government, under President Hoover and then more aggressively under Roosevelt and the New Deal, stepped in with a variety of loan guarantee, insurance, and incentive programs. Then came World War II, and a growing demand for affordable housing near defense plants. This short broadcast focuses on Federal Government housing policies and practices during the early years of World War II. It comes from the media collections of Record Group 162: General Records of the Federal Works Agency, 1930 - 1950. For more information about the audio recording, contact Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD.
Segment 3: "Richard Pells on Europeans and American Culture."
Bryan Le Beau joins historian Richard Pells, of the University of Texas at Austin, in an exploration of international cultural exchange, examining how Europeans have Europeanized American culture in the years since World War II. Pells is the author of Not Like Us: How Europeans Have Loved, Hated, and Transformed American Culture Since World War II (Basic Books, 1998). Produced: July, 2004.
July 15, 2002Segment 1: "Robeson and Robinson."
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Time: 23:40.Joe Dorinson, professor of history at Long Island University, New York, and co-editor of Jackie Robinson: Race, Sports, and the American Dream (M. E. Sharpe, 1999), compares the struggles of Paul Robeson and Jackie Robinson against segregation in the United States. This segment comes from WNYE's Teacher As Historian series. Produced: June, 2004.
Segment 2: "Salt."
Segment 3: From the Archives: "An Interview with William O. Douglas (Dec. 20, 1961). [Off-site link]"
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Time: 17:21.
Mark Kurlansky, author of Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World
(Penguin, 1998) and The Basque History of the World (Penguin, 2001), and Salt: A World History (Penguin, 2003) discuses how salt has shaped our civilization over millenia. Produced: July, 2004.
William O. Douglas was one of the most important U.S. Supreme Court judges in the 20th century. Recordings of his recollections can be found in a variety of places. The National Archives has a few, as does the Vincent Voice Library (http://www.lib.msu.edu/digital/vincent/findaids/DouglasWO.xml). A lengthy 18-cassette interview between Princeton University Political Science Professor Walter F. Murphy and U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice William O. Douglas is available at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University. On-line transcripts of that interview are at: http://libweb.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/finding_aids/douglas/. A selection from the original tapes is now on line, at Northwestern University�s History and Politics Out Loud web site: http://www.hpol.org/
July 8, 2002Segment 1: "Day of Reckoning: Lucy Gonzales Parsons, American Revolutionary, 1853-1942."
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Time: 29:28.Part 2:
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Time: 17:51."Lucy Parsons, never faltered in her political and labor activism, even after her husband Albert was hung along with seven other anarchists after the Haymarket riots in Chicago. She led tens of thousands of workers into the streets in mass protests across the country. Defying both racial and gender discrimination, she was at the forefront of movements for social justice her entire life." WBAI Radio�s Building Bridges (produced & Hosted by Mimi Rosenberg & Ken Nash) first aired this piece on March 8, 2004. It deals with a play ("Day of Reckoning") focusing on the life of Lucy Parsons, an African, Native and Mexican-American anarchist labor activist who was active in civil rights and worker's rights struggles during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The director of Day of Reckoning, Lorca Peress, along with Melody Cooper, actress and award winning playwright of the play, Freedome Bradley, and Michael Kennealy discuss their production for MultiStages, a "not-for-profit theatre company committed to exploring new interdisciplinary productions that challenge and bend conventional theatre." . Segment 2: From the Archives: "Michael Faraday."
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Time: 2:32Michael Faraday (1791-1867) was a British physicist and chemist, who is best known for his discoveries of electromagnetic induction and of the laws of electrolysis. He is widely credited with the invention of the electric motor. This dramatic piece on his life is from a longer documentary focusing on the history of electricity, produced by the Smithsonian Institution and first aired on February 22, 1938. The documentary was part of "The World Is Yours" radio series, which was regularly broadcast over the National Broadcasting Company network. The series was a joint project of the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Department of the Interior Office of Education, and the Works Progress Administration. For more information about the audio recording, contact Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD.
July 1, 2004
Segment 1: "Allen Ginzberg's Howl and the Making of the Beat Generation"
From Building Bridges, we bring you this conversation between producers Mimi Rosenberg and Ken Nash, producers of Building Bridges, and Jonah Raskin, author of American Scream: Allen Ginsberg's Howl and the Making of the Beat Generation (University of California Press, 2004). Raskin is the Professor and Chair of Communication Studies at Sonoma State University. For a short biography, bibliogaphy, and the full text of Howl, go to: http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=8. Segment 2: From the Archives: "Lawrence Ferlinghetti: Readings (2003) [Off-site link]"
Reading (Lannan Foundation - October 15, 2003): http://www.lannan.org/audio/audio_EFGH.htm
Lawrence Ferlinghetti--poet, translator, fiction writer, publisher, art critic, and bookstore owner--helped make Howl and the beat generation a major part of post-World War II American culture. Born in Yonkers in March 24, 1919, the youngerst of five boys, Ferlinghetti was raised in France with his aunt in his early years. He returned to the U.S. in 1924 along with his aunt, and attended grade school and high school in the U.S. Ferlinghetti served in the U.S. Navy in World War II; he participated in the Normandy invasion as a commander on a sub chaser, and visited Nagasaki just weeks after the atomic bomb was dropped on that city. He was educated at the University of North Carolina (BA) and Columbia University (MA), and received a Doctorate de l�Universit� de Paris from the Sorbonne in 1950. Ferlinghetti is well known as the founder, in 1953, of San Francisco�s City Lights Bookstore, with Peter D. Martin. The bookstore was soon expanded into a publishing house (City Lights) and it was this publishing house that brought Allen Ginsberg�s Howl to the general public in 1956. Ferlinghetti, of course, also made a major impact on American literary culture. His own poetry was internationally known and acclaimed. A Coney Island of the Mind , first published in 1958, has sold nearly 1,000,000 copies!
Segment 3: "Eric Foner on Who Owns History."
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Time: 16:51.Talking History/OAH's Fred Nielsen talks to historian Eric Foner, author of Who Owns History? Rethinking the Past in a Changing World (Hill & Wang, 2003), about contested interpretations and revisionisms in public and academic history -- encompassing issues related to content, standards, and meaning. Produced: June, 2004.
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